Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-10-27


en- by the Northeast Monsoon to the East
| coast of Africa, where, according to the
| legend, ''the sun and fire worshipers'' fell
| into conflict with the belt of Arab settlers
| who even then were settled on the East
| coast, and finally broke their way through
| them, and vanishing into the interior,
were no more seen. Now, ask, is it not
at least possible that the Zu-vendi people
are the descendants of these 'ssun and fire
| worshipers'' who broke through the Arabs
and vanished? As matter of fact, there
is good deal in their character and Gus
| toms that tallies with the somewhat vague
ideas that have Of Persians Of course,
we have no books of reference here, but
| Sir Henry says that, if his memory does
not fail him, there was Il tremendous re-
volt in Babylon about 500 B. c.. wherein a
vast multitude were expelled the city.
Anyhow, it is a well-established fact that
there have been many separate emigra-
lions of Persians from the Persian Gulf to
the East coast of Africa up to as lately as
seven hundred years ago There are Per
sian tombs at KilWa, on the East coast, still
in good repair, which bear dates showing
them to be just seven hundred years old.
{There is another theory that might ac-
count for the origin Of the Zu-vendi, which
does not seem TO have struck my friend
Mr. Quartermain and his companions; and
that is, that they are descendants OF the
PhWnicians. The cradle of the Phoenician
race is supposed to have been on the west
ern shore Of the Persian Gulf. Thence, az
s.lere is good evidence TO show, they emf
grated IN two streams, one Of which took
possession of the shores of Palestine, and
the other is supposed by savants to have
immigrated down the coast of Eastern At
RIGA, where, near Mozambique; signs and
remains of their occupation of the country
are not wanting. Indeed, it would have
been very extraordinary if they did not,
when leaving the Persian Gulf, make
straight for the East coast, seeing that the
Northeast Monsoon blows, for six months
in the year, dead in that direction while
for the other six months it blows back
again. And, by way of illustrating the
probability, [ may add that to this day a
very extensive trade is carried on between
the Persian Gulf and Lamu and other East
African ports as far south as Madagascar,
which is Of course the ancient Ebony Isle
of the AT0biGn Nigbts.-Editor)
In addition to being an agricultural peo-
pie, the Zu-vendi are, oddly enough, ex-
cessively Warlike; and as they cannot, from
the exigencies of their position, make war
upon other nations, they fight among each
other, like the famed Kilkenny cats, with
the happy result that the population never
outgrows the power Of the country to sup
port it. This habit of theirs is largely fos-
tered by the political condition of the coun-
try. The monarchy is nominaITy an abso
lTIfn in CO. or ac If ic fay Nv,
the power of the priests and the informal
council of the great lords; but as in many
other such institutions, the kings writ
does not run unquestiOned throughout the
length and breadth of the land. In short,
the whole system is a purely feudal one
Though absolute serfdom or slavery is I'M
KNOWN, all the great lords holding nomi-
nally from the throne, but number of
them being practically independent, hay
ing the power of life and DEATH waging
war against and making peace with their
neighbors as the whim or their interests
led them, and even on occasion rising in
open rebellion against their royal master
Or mistress, and, safely shut up in their
castles and fenced cities, far from the seat
of government, successfully defying them
for years.
Zu-vendis has had it's ng-makers as
well as England; fact that will be appre-
ciated when [ state that eight different
dynasties have sat upon the throne during
the last one thousand years, every one of
which took its rise from some noble family
that succeeded in grasping the purple af-
ter sanguinary struggle. At the date of
our arrival in the country, things were a
little better than they had been for some
centuries, the last king, the father of Ny
leptha and Sorais, having been an excep-
tionally able and vigorous ruler, and, as q
consequence, kept down the power of the
priests and mobiles. On his death, two
years before we reached Zu-vendis, the
twin sisters, his children, were, following
an ancient precedent. called to the throne,
since an attempt to exclude either would
instantly have provoked sanguinary civil
war. But it was generally feltin the coun-
try that this measure was a most unsatis-
factory one, and could hardly be expected
to be permanent. Indeed, as it was, the
various intrigues that were set on foot by
ambitious mobiles to obtain the hand of one
or other of the queens in marriage had dis
quoted the country, and the general opin-
ion was that there would be bloodshed be
fore long.
I will now pass on to the question of the
Zu-vendi religion, which is nothing more
or less than Sun-worship of a pronounced
and highly developed character Around
this sun-worship is grouped the entire
social system Of the Zu-vendi. It sends its
roots through every institution and custom
of the land From the cradle to the grave
the Zu-vendi follows the sun in every sense
of the word. AS an infant he is soIemnly
held up in its light and dedicated to ''the
symbol of good, the expression of power
and the hope Of eternity" the ceremony
answering to our baptism. Whilst yet a
tiny child, his parents point out the glori-
Gus orb as the presence Of a visible and
beneficent god, and he worships it at it's
uprising and down-setting. Then, when
still quite small, he goes, holding fast to
the pendent end of his mothers skaf''
(toga), up to the temple of the Sun of the
nearest city, and there, when at midday
the bright beams strike down upon the
golden central altar and beat back the fire
that burns thereon, he hears the white
robed priests raise their solemn chant of
praise, and sees the people fall down to
adore; and then amid the blowing OF the
golden trumpets, watches the sSc.if1ce
thrown into the fiery furnace beneath the